New York Police Officer Phillip Cardillo, seen here in an undated photo, was shot at a Harlem mosque on April 14, 1972. Photo Credit: TODD CARDILLO

It took more than four decades, but slain NYPD Officer Phillip Cardillo finally got his due Tuesday.

In a tearful tribute tinged with a sense of business unfinished, Police Commissioner William Bratton said the NYPD was making up for what it failed to give Cardillo after he was shot to death on April 14, 1972 -- an honorable send-off.

"Today we pay homage to patrolman Phillip Cardillo, who gave his all and kept his promise while we did not keep ours," Bratton said at the NYPD's Harbor Unit, where a new patrol boat was dedicated to Cardillo.

Unlike today, when politicians and police brass routinely attend cop funerals, Cardillo's death was ignored. Neither then-Mayor John Lindsay nor Patrick Murphy, the police commissioner at the time, attended his funeral, a fact that still irks Bratton.

"It's nothing short of shameful," Bratton told Cardillo's family, NYPD officials and current and retired police officers. He recounted the events leading up to Cardillo's death by reading aloud dispatches from the officer's last call. Bratton also told those gathered that if approved, a street sign may soon be emblazoned with the officer's name in front of the new NYPD Police Academy in College Point.

Todd Joseph Cardillo, who was just one-year-old when his father, Police Officer Phillip Cardillo, was shot and killed in 1972, speaks at the dedication ceremony where a new 70-foot long NYPD Harbor Launch was named after his father, on Tuesday, July 14th, 2015 at Brooklyn Army Terminal. Photo Credit: Yeong-Ung Yang

"Thousands of police will walk that street before going into the academy," Bratton said. "It's unfortunate that it's taken 43 years."